Probate query: using solicitor, company or sorting everything yourself.

[Silverfoxxx]

Hello again,

Finally got the medical certificate & registered my Dads death (took ages), got 3 copies of death certificate, but everyone seems to be fine with a photo of it.

Hours of fun, hunting for the will, finally located it with solicitor miles away.

Next issue, if anyone could help? Thanking you all in advance as my stress levels are through the roof and far away.

Need to get probate, contacted the Co-op funeral/ legal service for fixed rate fee came to £7600! Never dealt with anything like this before, but in shock, seems very expensive!
Would a solicitor be cheaper, or has anyone dealt with it themselves, I am the named executor & sole beneficiary in the will.

I was expecting it to be about £3500 ( and would be having a meltdown over that), but over £7000!

If you could share your experiences, I would be extremely grateful- now getting daily headaches & still haven't had the funeral yet, but booked, writing the eulogy is not easy either 😢

Thank you

Hello love, I am sorry for your loss. I hope you are doing ok.

Tell me, how complicated do you think the estate will be?

A house and a bank account or two? Easy. A house, shares, savings pots, gifts over the years, lots of beneficiaries...difficult.

Most firms will have a conversation with you about your options. The first one is you do it all - entirely possible if a simple enough estate (house and bank account, for example).

They could just obtain the grant for you - the middle of the road service. Or they could administer the whole thing - that's the expensive bit.

Tell me a little about the estate and let's take it from there.

(From Cheese, recently bereaved and also a solicitor).

Agree with the above. It depends on the size and complexity of the estate. Plus just how involved you want to get. Personally, I went with the family solicitor as my husbands estate very quickly went from 1 bank account and a house to lots of odd accounts/shares etc and hmrc getting involved. Cost £10k but worth every single penny to not have to be personally involved with the entire mess. Plus the solicitor discovered ££ I would in all likelihood have missed or screwed up somehow.
All dealt with in under 6 months start to finish.

We dealt with our parent's estates - their house, bank accounts, some investment accounts. It was time consuming nut not difficult - certainly not worth paying someone else £7k + to do. We didn't have to deal with IHT though.

I did the probate for both my parents, and it really was just a case of being organised. The hardest bit was tracking down all their many accounts, but I'm sure you have to do that before a solicitor could do the iht and probate submission anyway.

I did my dad’s estate last year. There was a large inheritance tax bill and numerous savings/investment accounts. I didn’t find it that hard apart from waiting for HMRC and the Probate Office to respond, the latter took four months to grant probate. You must do it online as I believe if you don’t the delays are terrible. I wouldn’t have paid anything like that amount for a solicitor to do it.

Probate if the estate is simple is very easy, if IHT due still doable but a bit more complex. I’ve done it twice, one simple one not so simple. There’s lots of help out there. Moneysavingexpert website has a forum for deaths and probate that’s really helpful,

We’ve just been quoted £3000 for a reasonably straight forward probate. Definitely shop around.

Sorry for your loss. I sorted out my dad's estate last year, although there wasn't a house and we are in Scotland so the process is different.

What I would say is that you don't have to start dealing with this right away. Use the government "tell us once" system to tell them of the death, notify the bank. There will be a "bereavement" page on their website if you google which puts you through to the specialist team.

Then leave things until after the funeral. I was quoted £195 plus VAT per hour and even though I was organising the pulling together of all the financial information myself, I still needed a lawyer to write the legalese on the forms - I think it's simpler in England/Wales.

There are no rights and wrongs here, it is entirely your choice how to manage this. Remember that the legal fees can be taken from the estate - so you are not paying them out of your own money. And as you are sole beneficiary, you can make the decision which is right for you without having to get agreement from other family members.

I used the Co op probate service for my estranged father, there was no way I was going to do it myself as I had barely spoke to him in the last 20 years, it cost about just over £3k for a fairly simple estate, no will, no inheritance tax or house a couple of years ago. I was pleased with the service.

Me and my bother did it for my dad’s estate to save money. My brother got a book from Amazon which took you through the process step by step. I somehow (and I break out in a cold sweat when thinking about this) bought his house and did the conveyancing myself to save money there. Would not recommend the latter! Probate was fine.

Crumbs - I paid a solicitor to sort out my Dad's probate 3y ago as I wasn't in any state to do it and decided I would rather not be any more stressed. There was no IHT, just the house and a bit of savings, and they charged me £1250. It came back inside 2 months. They were the solicitors who had done the will though. The house conveyancing was far worse as it'd never been registered and took over 2y! I got them to do that too as I'd not got a clue where to start.

We did it ourselves for DH's mum, but it was fairly straightforward (below IHT threshold, no property). It was a faff but just needed to be organised. For DH's grandma it was horrendous and we handed everything over to a solicitor halfway through, so I think it depends!

I've just used Coop Legal Services to do probate on a family estate. I found them very good. I believe most solicitors will take a percentage of the estate, so find out in advance what % they charge as it could be a lot more than £7600.

I did it myself for my Mums estate a few years ago, and to be honest it's not that difficult. Most of the hard work is actually stuff that you'll end up doing anyway. Finding out where the bank accounts are kept etc.

Admittedly my Mums estate was fairly simple. House, bank accounts, savings accounts, everything to be distributed evenly between me and my brother. If there's likely to be anything complicated, or disputed, then best to get a solicitor

My husband is just starting to do this on behalf of my mum following the death of her mum (my grandma). He has done it before for his family and generally enjoys the challenge. He’s very organised, the difficulty for us is that my mum is very poorly herself but some places need the next of kin in person, for example the solicitors won’t release the original will to anyone but executors which means dragging my mum out to their offices. We expect the estate to be under IHT, there’s a property to sell as well.

My brother and I just did our dad's after also being quoted about £7k. The gathering of information was the trickiest bit especially as our dad died v suddenly.

We had no IHT to pay but we did have to fill in loads of IHT forms anyway which was the worst bit.

Probate only took about two weeks once I sent the will off - I was amazed at how quick it was.

I was actually disgusted by the quote from the solicitor and I found it quite upsetting. One of my best friends is a solicitor for the CPS and she was also horrified!

We got a solicitor to do mums estate and I'm so glad we did, it was a nightmare.
Bank accounts everywhere, shares, insurances galore.
A day before sending it off to probate. The solicitor received a letter from one
insurance company after a thorough search they found 2 more instructions from our
late father's estate. Which mum hadn't sorted.
Mum was very secretive about money. Always pleaded poverty.
Letters hidden.

But did mil ourselves as was a simple process. Own house, one bank account and only DH a a inheritor.

Sorry for your loss

I've just done it myself for my dad's estate and found there was so much help from hmrc guidance and from online forums.

It does take focus and effort and will depend on how organised your dad was. But it's not difficult in itself. The frustration comes from getting answers from pension companies, premium bonds can be a pain etc.

I did my mums myself took less than a month

I did my dads using Farewill
because my mum passed away my dad had a lifetime interest in my mums half of the house

cost about 650
Took 7 weeks in 2022
can’t fault them
they updated me every week
had to pay 100 deposit and the rest once they got probate

would recommended

Apologies, for my late response, I've been struggling with the lack of photos iv taken over last 13 years of my Dad. . Lots of my son & guinea pigs, but when your Dad pops round for a chat - do u take a photo?? Time is fleeting, and feel so sad!

Not sleeping, & when I do find nice photo they are with (divorced) Mum.

Thank you for your experiences, Mumsnet is wonderful & comforting!

We purchased a book on probate on Amazon, will follow & consult a solicitor if needed- don't think it will cost £7600, so appreciate your help, support & advice. Lots I still need to and ask & if u could help 💕

Still overwhelmed that strangers would take the time to help someone & give advice ❤️♥️Can u post 2 1 person on Mumsnet?

Thank you so many much x x

please check out one star trust pilot reviews and Facebook page for coop legal services. I have no direct experience but people who recently used them are warning others about their probate service.

My two siblings and I are doing this for our unmarried brother. We were shocked at solicitor costs when we enquired, but they will do certain things that we can't do. Eg a financial search and a wills search which is easier for them. Also they will advertise for any claimants. We can do a number of things to save costs, eg contacting utility companies etc, closing accounts, getting house valuation.

I am doing a joint application for Letters of Administration if no will turns up, and the bank has released the funds in DB's bank account (only £13000 so maybe there's an allowable threshold) Hopefully no complications will arise. The worst thing will be clearing and selling the house. Good luck!

It all depends on you good you are with form filling, administration, organisation, attention to detail, etc. None of it is rocket science, but you have to be organised to contact all the banks, utility firms, etc., give them the exact information/documents they ask for, chase them up, etc. That's just to get the core data for the probate application form and IHT forms. Then you need to complete those forms, research as required to check exactly what each section means and asks for, etc. If it's a simple estate and you're good with admin and form filling, then you shouldn't have a problem with the process. Otherwise, get a professional to do it. The thing is that filling part of the IHT or probate form wrongly (or leaving it blank when it requires and answer) ends up delaying it by months as it takes them months to even look at forms you submit and then if they bounce it back with a rejection or query, you're back at the back of the queue again when you re submit it.

We used Mum’s accountant which seemed the most sensible way forward as they’d dealt with her tax returns etc. I couldn’t believe how much they charged considering my brother and I did most of the graft. £5k! It took them a day.

I’ve been in dispute with them for other things associated with Mum’s estate for over 3 years now and finally got a timesheet. Amongst other ridiculous entries there’s a 15 minute charge when they tried to call me and got no answer!

If I was doing it again I’d try to do it myself. If it was complicated I’d probably not use a solicitor, I’d look for a reliable accountant as they are very much better at spotting where you’ve been fobbed off, overcharged, misled etc and even better at spotting errors. They are also helpful in recommending a solicitor to sue the arse off the bunch of bandits.

Sorry. I’m still bitter. Try to do it yourself first

Sound advice, but these days, "normal" accountants aren't allowed to do probate unless they have a separate probate qualification/authorisation. I used to do it for existing clients only, so just 1 or 2 per year, but had to stop a few years ago when the new regulations came into force as it wasn't worth the cost, time and effort to go through the hoops of new regulations for just once or twice a year.